Raising Churchill’s Army Raising Churchill’s Army The British Army and the War against Germany 1919– 1945 DAVID FRENCH Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © David French 2000 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data French, David, 1954- Raising Churchill’s army : the British army and the war against Germany, 1919– 1945 / David French. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Great Britain. Army—History—World War, 1939–1945. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Great Britain. I. Title. 1939–1945—Great Britain. I. Title. D759.F76 2000 940.54′1241—dc21 99–057301 ISBN 0–19-820641–0 1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2 Typeset in Imprint by Regent Typesetting, London Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by T. J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall To my FATHER And the memory of my MOTHER Acknowledgements I have amassed a large number of intellectual debts in the course of writing this book. I would particularly like to thank Mr Jeremy Barnett, Mrs Christine Bielecki, Dr John Bourne, Professor David Edgerton, Professor John Ferris, Dr Tim Harrison-Place, Dr Paul Harris, Dr Stephen Hart, Dr Brian Holden Reid, Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Pratley, Dr Gary Sheffield, and Mr Keith Simpson for sharing their insights with me, for suggesting possible sources and lines of investigation, and for securing access to material for me. The staff of the Imperial War Museum, the Public Record Office and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College London gave me every possible assistance and made working in their institutions a pleasure. Once again Professor Keith Neilson placed me in his debt by taking immense time and trouble to read a draft of my manuscript and to give me the benefit of his copious suggestions. None of the above are responsible for what appears here, but I am grateful to them all. I alone am responsible for any errors of fact or interpretation. I am also most grateful to my editors at OUP, Tony Morris and Ruth Parr, and to their colleagues, for their patience and assistance. The following individuals and institutions have kindly given me permission to quote from material to which they own the copyright: Mrs G. H. C. Abram; the Reverend Hugh Temple Bone; Mr Victor Bonham-Carter; the Master and Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge; Mr E. A. Codling; the Rt. Hon. Sir R. Dunn MC; Mrs N. R. Edwards; Mr Tom Flanagan; Mr Ronald Gladman; Lieutenant-Colonel E. L. Jones MC; Miss Rosemary Lewin; Mrs Patricia Lothian; the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London; the Department of Documents and the Department of Sound Records of the Imperial War Museum and the Montgomery Collections Committee of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum and Viscount Montgomery of Alamein CBE; Mr Len Waller. Crown copyright material appears with the kind permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationary Office. Despite my best endeavours, I was unable to contact the copyright holders of the papers of Sergeant E. P. Danger. I would like to apologize to them, and to anyone else whose copyright I may have inadvertently infringed. The process of researching this book was made much easier than it might have been because I was the recipient of a Small Personal Research Grant from the British Academy. I would like to thank the Academy for their support. This book is dedicated to my father and the memory of my mother. David French University College London 14 September 1999 Contents Abbreviations Introduction 1 ‘How Are You to Succeed without Causing Losses?’ Doctrine and Organization, 1919–1939 2 Regimental Officers and the Rank and File 3 Weapons and Equipment 4 Discipline and Morale 5 The Pre-War Army and the British Expeditionary Force, 1940 6 The Reformation of the Army, Home Forces, 1940–1943 7 The Desert War, 1940–1942 8 Monty’s Army: Alam Halfa to the Rhine Conclusion Bibliography Index Abbreviations AA Anti-Aircraft AASF Advanced Air Striking Force ABCA Army Bureau of Current Affairs ACIGS Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff AFHQ Allied Forces Headquarters AFV Armoured Fighting Vehicle AGRA Army Group Royal Artillery AMD Army Medical Department AOC Air Officer Commanding AOP Air Observation Post AP Armoured Piercing APM Assistant Provost Marshal ASC Air Support Control ASSU Air Support Signals Unit ATM Army Training Memorandum AWM Australian War Memorial Bde. Brigade BEF British Expeditionary Force BGGS Brigadier General General Staff BGS Brigadier General Staff BLA British Liberation Army C Command, Control, and Communication 3 C I Command, control, communications and intelligence 3 Capt. Captain CAS close air support CCC Churchill College, Cambridge C-in-C Commander-in-Chief CGS Chief of the General Staff